Browsed byMonth: February 2017

Social media: “It’s the polarization of America based on fleeting statements without substance,” Flores said. Much of social media can be described as “fleeting statements without substance,” I say, prompting reactionary responses such as anger and frustration. It’s a digital world where silence can be perceived as consent, and opinions can be perceived as facts. Source: Has social media rewired our political impressions? – Post-Tribune That’s right – if you did not Like, then you obviously disagree! Having recently cut…

New data from Kaplan Test Prep say admissions officers do look at accounts. Source: Colleges Really Are Looking at Your Social Media Accounts | Best Colleges | US News And what they find can improve admission chances – or rejection. The key takeaway: “College applicants need to be aware of what others can find about them on social networks and make sure it reflects well on them,” said Alpher. “For better or worse, social media has become an established factor…

Social media in the age of Trump presents us with two opposite dangers: a quantum increase in our political anxiety, and a gradual numbing of our political attention. …. Now the dark side of Facebook and so many other online communities is the relentless diet of online rage and political panic. Every re-post is a new call to arms, a new case for upheaval, a moment of mutiny. Calls for revolution are ubiquitous…. No doubt America’s army of therapists will…

Everyone is working to manipulate you on social media: “It’s recently been revealed that the U.S. government contracted HBGary Federal for the development of software which could create multiple fake social media profiles to manipulate and sway public opinion on controversial issues by promoting propaganda. It could also be used as surveillance to find public opinions with points of view the powers-that-be didn’t like. It could then potentially have their “fake” people run smear campaigns against those “real” people. As…

There’s another type of “fake news” that surfaces during virtually every political campaign: propaganda. Propaganda is weaponized speech that mixes truthful, deceptive and false speech, and is designed explicitly to strengthen one side and weaken the other. Propaganda has been around for a long time, preceding the era of mass media. …. tools such as Twitter and Facebook may make propaganda harder to detect and debunk. Many citizens are skeptical of claims made by politicians and parties, but are less…

USA Today goes full social media fake news stupid Based on an unverified report citing unnamed sources, USA Today publishes a story based on tweets that was already largely debunked by Snopes.com (FACT CHECK: Does President Trump’s White House Dress Code Mandate Dresses for Female Staffers?) In other words USA Today took poorly sourced, probably wrong material, based on unvetted Tweets and turned it in to a “news story” to sell eyeballs to advertisers. At the time I checked, the…

Retailers once again find themselves in the middle of a political and cultural fight, and many have simply stopped making sense. Real companies and real jobs are at risk based on knee-jerk responses to misinformation. Consumer boycotts based on cultural or religious beliefs are nothing new, Target and Barilla pasta are just two of the many covered here at length. But recently social media is helping to fuel many knee jerk reactions that are turning concerned citizens and advocates into…

TL;DR Summary Propaganda poster distributed on social media notes that the number of Americans killed annually by “Islamic jihadist immigrants” is very small. The numbers in the chart appear to be approximately correct (depends on year and who is counting). The poster uses data, which may invoke System 2 rational thinking, yet the numbers and layout are simple enough that many people may process this with their quick, intuitive and emotional-based System 1 thinking style. In that regard, this is…

The Social Action Team is a simple way to turn energy into action. Members will receive special updates they can share on social media with the click of a button. Join us! Source: Kate Brown Oregon’s Governor | | Join our Social Action Team! If you thought social media propaganda makes noise in your news line already – think again – social media propaganda is in its infancy. All politicians, organizations, agencies and businesses are working hard to increase their…

Regarding those who closely follow the news: ‘“These are the people with an intolerance of uncertainty, and are probably already anxious individuals, and are exactly the ones for whom negative news has a negative psychological impact on their own personal anxieties and worries,” he said. As consumers become satiated, the news media responds by increasing the “emotionality” of its coverage, meaning negativity is emphasized to keep customers engaged, he wrote.’ Source: Fatigued by the News? Experts Suggest How to Adjust…

Besides the dangers of social media used as a friction-less conduit for propaganda, social media users encounter other emotional roadblocks: “61% of the participants felt worse after finding out someone “unfriended” them, and 59% were upset after someone posted a negative or critical comment on their profile 57% said after going on social media they’ve felt that someone they follow has a better life than they do 59% felt sad after seeing photos from a party they didn’t attend posted…